The trend in the field of dry chemistry blood analysis is towards smaller instruments, for use by smaller institutions and individuals, e.g., doctor's offices. This is evident from the fact that early, commercial dry chemistry analyzers were large machines designed for the large hospital or clinical laboratory, as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,155, issued Sept. 1, 1981. (As used herein, "dry chemistry" refers to tests wherein there are no liquid reagents stored for use, such tests having been made possible by test elements of the type described in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,158, issued Nov. 16, 1976.) More recently, the analyzers have been reduced in size, complexity and cost, so as to be useful in doctor's offices, e.g., as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,303,611 and 4,424,191.
Although such reductions have greatly increased the versatility of the dry chemistry analysis technology, further reduction could provide the additional advantages of portability and use by other than highly skilled doctors and their assistants.
One of the problems that the prior art had not overcome, prior to this invention, concerning portability, is the height of the analyzer necessitated by the presence of the dispensing station used with a pipette. That is, as shown for example in the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,191 the analyzer has included a station for supporting a pipette removably positioned above a test element. A support for the pipette avoids dispensing errors that can occur without a support. The support for such positioning of the pipette has necessitated that the analyzer have considerable height extending above the real working plane of the analyzer, namely, the plane of the test element. Such height makes the analyzer quite bulky, and thus less portable, than it would be without the height required for the dispensing station. Yet, it has not been desirable to do away with the dispensing station since best results are achieved if incubation of the test element occurs immediately, and in a controlled environment, following dispensing with a pipette. That is, a full function analyzer is desired. Such is not readily achieved if dispensing is done on a different apparatus than on the analyzer.